Urban Fidelity Art Speakers

by Josh Ray on July 12 '12

Greetings friends, as some of you may know, I've started a speaker company called Urban Fidelity. My mission with Urban Fidelity is to bring the next generation to hi-fi, one pair of speakers at a time.

Skullcandy and Beats by Dre have incited a revolution in the headphone market. Full-size headphones are booming like never before, much to the delight of Sennheiser, Grado, and many new headphone companies. Additionally, DJ culture is exploding, getting front-of-store placement in Best Buy while iPhone docks and computer speakers are only growing in popularity. Every single audio related category is seeing legendary growth.

...except home stereo. Loudspeakers are relegated to the darkest corner of Best Buy, and that's only if the Best Buy has a Magnolia speaker closet. Otherwise the speakers are crammed on a metal display shelf. And forget actually auditioning the speakers. While B&W, Martin Logan, Vienna, and a handful of others find their ways into non-audiophile living rooms, the majority of listeners don't even know there's a world beyond Bose.

I want to change all that. Urban Fidelity is my vision for making inroads with the non-audiophiles. For new audio consumers, the most important quality is livability -- can I stand to have this speaker in my living room? If the answer is not just "yes, I can stand it" but "yes, I want it" then we're on the right track. That's why I've chosen to make Urban Fidelity speakers a platform for fresh indie artwork.

With Urban Fidelity, I hope to whet people's appetites for hi-fi and then send them up the food chain to find (and buy) larger, better, more expensive audio systems. We'll recommend to our customers amplifiers, turntables, and, yes, even other speakers. Just like Skullcandy has boosted Grado's business, I hope, with any success, Urban Fidelity can get consumers interested in the rest of hi-fi. With any luck, they'll buy magazines, visit dealerships and check out the audio shows.

Since I've made the jump from journalist to manufacturer, SonicFlare will now become the domain of the illustrious Danny Kaey. Danny has a number of excited ideas and I can't wait to see him take SonicFlare in a new direction.

So check us out on Kickstarter and Facebook and let people know you support our mission to bring hi-fi to the masses!